


Changing the Academy

by LadyoftheNight



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-09 01:26:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7781494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyoftheNight/pseuds/LadyoftheNight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Parties are loud, Uhura realizes Starfleet has a lot of different species, and Gaila and Kirk are good friends.  It's all kinda cute and mildly serious.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changing the Academy

            As parties go, this one was rather loud. Most of the other cadets were enjoying the cranked up music and shouting along. Cadet Kirk was, of course, dancing with a few people in the middle of the room. He clearly had no problem with the increasing noise. Unfortunately, for someone with gifted hearing like Cadet Nyota Uhura, the music was too much.

            As much fun as she was having hanging out with a few friends and watching Kirk make a fool of himself, she needed to step outside or start suffering a massive headache.

            “I’m going to go wash up!” She shouted to Gaila, who looked like she was about to make her way into Kirk’s crowd despite Nyota’s warnings.

            “What?” The Orion shouted back, cupping a hand to her ear.

            Instead of answering, Uhura just rolled her eyes and mimed washing her hands. Apparently that was enough for her roommate, who just gave her a huge grin and bounced off. It was truly amazing how Gaila managed to make simple bouncing into dancing.

           

            Stepping out of the party, Nyota was a little surprised about how quite the dorm hallway was. Starfleet really did put good work into their buildings. It still amazed her how many of her fellow cadets were willing to completely give up their room and move their belongings and furniture elsewhere just to host a good party. But the low levels of adrenaline still coursing through her made her admit it was a good idea. Everyone needed to blow off steam, cadets even more.

            The hall bathroom was thankfully empty and delightfully clean, allowing her to splash some cold water on her face and enjoy the silence alone for a moment. The light throbbing in her temples could have been much worse.

            Nyota loved a good party, she really did, but sometimes she wished cadets were a little more thoughtful. Many were so self-driven they forgot their actions affected others. This was probably just a first year trait, since they were expected to work well with others when they graduated.

            The music thing was especially bothering her. Sure, for a human she had excellent hearing, but there were other alien races in Starfleet who were much more sensitive to sound. If she was getting a headache, they probably couldn’t even go to a party at all.

            And then the spark of an idea began to form in her brilliant mind, and she practically ran to her room.

 

            About an hour had passed when a sudden knock on the door startled Nyota out of her trance. She’d been writing and rewriting a memo to the entire cadet body, analyzing the use of every word in all of the five languages she’d put it down in. If she was going to be inclusive, she was going to go all the way. Intersectionality was about the whole of the people she could reach.

            “Come in,” she called to the door, ignoring it as it slid open to reread her use of the Vulcan word for ‘stimuli’.

            “You left the party…to do homework?” Kirk’s incredulous tones carried from his spot just inside the door.

            Annoyance immediately filled her as she looked up from her PADD to glare at the newcomer.

            “What the hell are you doing in my room, Kirk?” Then she caught sight of the person behind him and rolled her eyes. “Seriously, Gaila? Go to his room.”

            “He’s not here for that!” Gaila sounded petulant for a minute, but then started to eye the, admittedly handsome, man next to her as if reconsidering.

            Somehow Kirk was able to ignore the attentions of the Orion long enough to shrug and respond with, “We just came to check on you. Gaila said you didn’t look good when you left.”

            Some of Uhura’s shell cracked as she realized he was just trying to be nice. Here was the thoughtfulness she’d been commiserating over for not existing earlier in the night, and she brushed it off without realizing what it was.

            “Sorry,” she said, earning a small smile from Kirk and a large grin from Gaila. The other girl then flounced to plop down on her own bed and made a dramatic show of stretching her legs out, a sight which both humans in the room couldn’t help but stare at.

            “Uh,” Kirk cleared his throat out and turned back to Uhura and asked, “Was the party really so bad as to drive you to doing homework?”

            “Was that your room?” Rather than answer directly, she blurted out a question that immediately came to her.

            “No, I wish!” He laughed and shook his head. “Bones would kill me if I tried to move his bed out. It was my friend Gary’s party though, and I was helping him organize it.”

            “Oh. Tell your friend thanks, it was fun.” She took a moment to study Kirk. He certainly wasn’t the person she’d sized him up to be at first. He was still arrogant to the point of narcissism, flirted with anything that seemed likely to consent, and could be annoying as hell. But he cared, and he tried to do the right thing.

            “I’m writing a letter to all the other cadets about different types of parties we should be holding.” In a rare show of trust, she held out the PADD to him.

            Rather than respond immediately, he took the time stand still next to her and to actually read it. He turned out to be a quick read too, and when he handed it back she realized she’d left it on the Vulcan translation.

            “I think those are great ideas. I especially like the one with dancing to lights instead of music. I’d volunteer to host the first one.” Kirk grinned and leaned against the wall by her desk.

            “You just said McCoy would kill you.” She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide the bit of redness creeping to her cheeks at the compliments. It wasn’t like she wanted, needed, or sought Kirk’s approval; it was just nice to get the enthusiasm of another cadet.

            “I’m always up for new types of parties!” Gaila snatched the PADD next. ‘Thanks for putting it into Orion too, N-“ She managed to stop herself from sharing ‘Kirk will never know this’ information, but he either didn’t catch on or was just saving the new data for a later date.

            “I bet we can wrangle together a big enough group of other cadets to put your plans in motion. The only thing that would make it better would be a faculty endorsement of ways of reaching out to non-human members of Starfleet.” Kirk paused in his speech, considering. “Pike might do it, but he’s pretty old. It would be better to get someone younger.”

            “I know someone,” Nyota blurted it out before she’d even thought about it. Of course, she and Commander Spock had been growing _close_ , and since he was no longer her instructor, she had a few ideas…

            However, none of her plans to, for lack of a better word, seduce the Vulcan included asking him to endorse ideas on improving the party life on campus. It probably wasn’t the sort of behavior he would consider ‘logical’.

            Not like she could tell Kirk any of that reasoning now.

            Gaila was giggling a bit now, but she thankfully kept her silence. Uhura of course consulted her more experienced roommate on seduction ideas, and the Orion had been more than happy to share every detail of how she thought Nyota needed to proceed.

            Kirk was looking a little lost, but nodded and grinned.

            “Go for it, Uhura. I think it’ll mean a lot to the other cadets.”

            “Thanks, Kirk. Now get out of my room; it’s past curfew and if you get caught sneaking out of my room very late the gossip might kill me.” She sighed and continued, “and then I’d be forced to kill you.”

            “He could stay here all night though. My bed is big enough for two.” Gaila patted her mattress.

            “That’s…so tempting.” Kirk looked pretty torn. One look from Uhura was enough to send him scampering back out.

            “Gaila, see you around!” He called as the door slid shut behind him.

 

            Nyota’s plan worked shockingly well. Spock even gave her ideas a semi-official endorsement and a promise to help her spread the plans after carefully helping her with her Vulcan vocabulary (not like she actually needed the help, but it was a way to bring the party subject up). True to his word, Kirk held the first light-dancing party, which sadly was broken up when McCoy returned early from a late shift at the hospital.

            Uhura hadn’t minded when Kirk had asked to crash on her floor that night, as his bed had mysteriously not made it back to his room. She even said yes, as long as he slept right in front of the door, since she’d seen McCoy and a few of his and Kirk’s other buddies shoving the command student’s mattress into the lift.

            The best part had been going to the parties and seeing the increase in cadet diversity there. For about the first twenty of the ‘new’ styles of parties they’d gone to, Gaila had pointed out the different alien species and explaining how this was better for them than the more traditional Earth music and dancing. Many of the alien cadets even went out of their way to thank her.

            It was nice to make a difference, and it gave her a bond to the others she knew she’d carry with her onto whatever ship she ended up serving on.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my 'homework' for tumblr user spock-in-space's Starfleet Academy thing-it's cute and people should check it out!


End file.
